This Penguin Swim 2,000 Miles Each Year To See This Man

Back in 2011, a Magellanic penguin was discovered by a Brazilian covered with oil and hungry by his home on an island close to Rio de Janeiro. After washing him up and feeding him, an unbreakable friendship was born.

He believed their pathways had strayed permanently by the time, Joao Pereira de Souza allow the penguin to go back to the ocean. But, much to his surprise, the penguin came back to the island a couple of months later and followed de Souza back to his home.

The penguin spends eight months – every year since then – together with his new companion on the Brazilian island and back to the Patagonian coast, South Chile and Brazil just to breed during spring, which was that this journey took around 2,000 miles.

The retired bricklayer, de Souza, has named his new pal JinJing.

I love the penguin like it’s my own child and I believe the penguin loves me too. No one else is allowed to touch him. He pecks them if they do. He lays on my lap, lets me give him showers, allows me to feed him sardines and to pick him up,” says de Souza.

As what IUCN Red List said, Spheniscus magellanicus commonly known as the magellanic penguin is categorized as almost endangered species. While it’s not extraordinary of for the penguins to migrate up to Brazil, there are few reports of individuals heading to Rio de Janeiro in normal circumstances.

As the local fisherman named Mario Castro, told the Wall Street Journal,

The funniest thing is, the penguin might stay here for a week, then it will walk down to the beach and leaves. It spends 10, 12 or 15 days, then comes back to the same house.”